A Word about “What’s Good about It?”

A Word about “What’s Good about It?”

Like it or not, we’ve all been “programmed.” I mean by that, it is impossible to grow up without learning and learning a lot!

Of course, some the lessons we learn serve us well through the course of our lives. Others, not so much. But we are all “learning machines” even throughout our adult years.

Think about it. How did you learn to communicate, to solve problems, to deal with disappointment and success, to handle anger, to be in relationships? Of course, you were “programmed” in the family in which you grew up–for better or for worse!

The list of our learnings is endless, and the good news is that we have the capacity to re-program ourselves or to re-learn lessons that are self-defeating and counter productive.

But I want you to focus for just a few minutes on one specific aspect of your learning: your attitude. How do you approach life, each day of your life? With eagerness, anticipation, confidence, gratitude and positivity or with trepidation, anxiety, anger, negativity and blame? Maybe a mixture. But the most important question is where did you learn to do that?

When someone says, “Good morning,” do you automatically think, “What’s good about it?”

In a Sunday sermon, I heard a wonderful quote from Matthew Henry, a well-known Bible commentator. While meditating on the recent theft of his wallet, he remarked:

“Let me be thankful, first, because he never robbed me before; second, because although he took my purse, he did not take my life; third, because although he took all I possessed, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”

So, what’s good about it? What’s good about a volcano spitting lava through the roof of your house?

Or, as I was told several years ago by a client who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, “You know, Dr. Duncan, there has never been a better time in history to have breast cancer!”